10 of the Most Important Life Lessons I Learned from My 20s

This content is taken from Mark Manson’s Blog, and appeared on Lifehacker.

1. Fail early and often, time is your best asset

When you’re young, it’s the time to take the biggest risks. You might fail, but if and when you do, you have time to recover. The learning from failing is sometimes more valuable then when you succeed.

2. You can’f force friendships.

You can’t predict which of your friends will stick around and which ones won’t. It’s just life.

3. You’re not supposed to accomplish all of your goals

The original article states that the author believes 80% of the value of a goal is to motivate you and the other 20% is some arbitrary thing. Life happens, people succeed or fail, and some goals will go uncompleted.

4. No one actually knows what they are doing

Despite our best attempts, nobody knows what they are doing. Nobody can predict the future. You just use the information you have to make the best decisions possible and understand that it might not work out the way you planned, and that’s okay.

5. Most people in the world basically want the same things

This definitely is important. If you help people get what they want, they will help you get what you want, and what you want, is probably not so different.

6. The world doesn’t care about you.

To be young and to think the world is fair. It’s not, and we know this.

7. Pop culture is full of extremes, practice moderation

Ignore most of the noise on the internet, and know that 90% of people are middle grounders and only 5% of people are on either extreme.

8. The sum of the little things matter much more than the little things

People tend to notice the results and not the process. The hard-work that nobody sees is what is truly important.

9. The world is not a scary place out to get you

The majority of people are good, even in horrible places.

10. Your parents are people too.

Chances are, your parents did the best they could but still screwed you up in ways you’ll find out about in your 20s. I’m sure they have successes, failures, fears, goals, stresses, and goals, just like you. They are people too, and will probably understand exactly how you feel. They were once in their 20s.